


Marble Floor

by Greensilver



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 10:37:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8010358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greensilver/pseuds/Greensilver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the magical and muggle worlds cross over, complicated dilemmas are there. Albus Severus finds something in the Room of Requirement that may have the answers but asks more questions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Marble Floor

‘Why on freaking Earth do we have to move?’ Albus Severus asked his father.

‘I have explained this to you before,’ Harry said. ‘We need to move near to Whitehall because the Ministry of Magic has created more jobs within it, so with more people in the building it is becoming increasingly hard to find a meeting room. So now I have to hold private meetings in my house instead, and if we are near to Whitehall, it will be easier for those who do not want to apparate to get to our house.’

‘If they don’t want to apparate, why can’t they just travel via the Floo Network!’

‘We have been through this before,’ Harry said. ‘Some wizards just don’t like the Floo Network. More importantly, the Floo Network is managed by the Ministry. This means that they can keep tabs on us.’

‘So?’ Albus asked.

‘So it is dangerous. We may be all united against Voldermort but the real world is not like that. Different departments conspire against each other, and I wouldn’t want anyone spying on our actions in the Floo Network to conspire against us and our work!’

‘Why would they conspire against your work?’ Albus asked.

‘You are just too naïve!’

‘Huh!’ Albus huffed. ‘Whitehall, Whitehall, the centre of the bleeding universe. They think the rest of the world doesn’t exist.’  
***  
Albus passed the rest of the summer holidays relatively peacefully. One week before the Hogwarts term started (Albus was due to start sixth year), they moved to their new house near Whitehall. With school nearing, Albus was jittery. He went outside and met his next door neighbour Anita.

He and Anita took a walk to a nearby park, and they told each other their life stories.

Harry passed them while he was taking a walk. He did not disturb them. As he looked at them, the memory of Severus Snape and his mother flashed back in his mind. Except Albus and the girl were much older than Severus Snape and his mother had been in Snape’s memory.

Albus found out that Anita was a witch, except her parents did not let her attend Hogwarts.

He also found out that her parents were converts to the Islamic religion.

‘Is it because of your religion that they didn’t let you attend Hogwarts?’ Albus asked.

‘Yes and no,’ Anita said. ‘It is complicated.’

‘Is it a coincidence that you are here and I ended up here?’ Albus asked.

‘No, nothing is a coincidence. I heard that from a Youtube video I watched, but I forgot which one exactly.  
***   
Albus told Scorpius everything about her when they were back at Hogwarts. He told him that she would pray every day and go through the motions without believing.

Scorpius, who had recently become very sensitive, analysed the situation. He talked about the rights of minorities and the rights to freedom. Scorpius said that it was just too complicated and he would rather concentrate on his Transfiguration homework than offer any advice.

As different as Harry and Albus were, they had both fallen into the habit of walking and wandering around whenever they needed to clear their heads.

One evening, while Scorpius was away in another world doing his Transfiguration homework, Albus wandered around the castle and he went into the Room of Requirement. In it, he found an empty room with white walls and a white marble floor. In the middle of the room was Snape’s old potions book.

The next day, Albus owled Harry and explained what he found. Harry owled him back and explained that the Room of Requirement must have produced a copy, for the original book was destroyed. Harry said that he did not have the brains of Hermione but his best guess was that the reason for Albus stumbling across that book was that the book had something to teach him.

Albus spent the next few weeks examining the book carefully. He examined how Snape had improved upon the book’s original recipes.

In a eureka moment, Albus sussed that the book wanted him to learn that we can learn from the past, but we must always improve from it.

With Scorpius by his side, the weeks passed quickly and the Christmas holidays came.

Albus went home and talked to Anita again.

‘I am sorry that I can’t help you,’ Albus said.

‘You don’t need to be sorry,’ Anita said.

‘We all have our problems, we all have our struggles,’ Albus said. ‘But I don’t know the answer. I can find an answer and write a textbook, but some years later, someone will annotate it and say I am wrong.’

Anita asked him what he was talking about. Albus told her about the Half Blood Prince’s potions book.

‘I know these days we have to be politically correct and everything. And Aunt Hermione’s SPEW movement is really starting to gather momentum. And lots of politically correct things are succeeding. But what is political correctness? And what is political truthness? I know dad thinks that because I am an ambitious Slytherin I will turn out to be a Ministry man. But that is not the power I want. In a weird way, I want a sort of power that people don’t understand. The power to be friends with people. The power to be happy. But how can we be happy? But them Whitehall folks, they know nothing about ordinary people. They can’t control what they don’t know, so what is not under their control is a blank page. Tomorrow is a blank page. Take your risks and be happy. But don’t take too many risks and be safe. I am sorry that I don’t know the answer. But I think that part of life is that we write our own answers, or improve on previous answers, standing on the shoulders of giants. Our answers are our dreams and we make our dreams come true.’


End file.
